The+Interlopers

Short Stories - Literary Devises Title:__The Interlopers____
Point of View: The story was told in third person omniscent.

Protagonist:

The protagonist of the story is both Ulrich von Gradwitz and Georg Znaeym.

What type of character is the Protagonist? The protagonists are dynamic and a round characters.

Antagonist: The antagonists of the story are also both of the protagonists, Ulrich and George, because although the story centres around them, they are also their enemies.

Describe the setting This story takes place in the evening, in a forest somewhere on the eastern spurs of the Carpathians. It is said to be winter, and I think the story takes place sometime in the early 1900's. Throughout the story the atmosphere changes. At the beginning of the story while the two men are looking for each other and then when they do find each other, the mood is tense. After they become trapped, the mood changes to being more angry, at each other and at themselves. After they reconcile, the mood becomes less intense, until the very last moments of the story when they realize there are wolves.

Type of Conflict: The main types of conflict in the story are Man vs Man and Man vs Environment. At the beginning of the story the conflict was more Man vs Man, because the two people were fighting over ownership of the land, but later on became more of a struggle with the environment after the tree fell on them. There was also Man vs Self conflict occurring in the story, because both men were struggling with their instincts, forcing themselves to overcome their differences and end the feud.

Describe the main conflict: The main conflict of the story is when Ulrich and Georg go looking to kill each other to finally end the feud, and then when the tree fell on them and they became trapped, struggling to escape.

Describe the Climax of the Story: The climax of the story is when they are arguing as they are trapped under the tree, and decide that they shouldn't fight anymore. The turning point of the story is when they stop fighting, form a truce, and decide together to call for help.

How does the Protagonist change over the course of the story? The protagonists change from being angry and hating each other to becoming more forgiving and understanding, and in the end Ulrich was the one to suggest they end the feud between their two families.

Describe the relationship between the title and the theme. The title, Interlopers, means trespassing or people who were not welcome, and that's what the characters did and were in the story. The theme of the story was forgiveness, and how you should put your differences behind you. That's what they did in the story, because although they had a huge feud over the land and trespassing, they learned to overcome it and move past it.

How does the main conflict help to illustrate the theme? The main conflict of the story was when they were looking to kill each other and the tree fell on them, and the whole time they were trapped they were arguing. This illustrates the theme because while they were trapped and arguing, they learned to forgive each other and eventually move on.

How does the climax help to illustrate the theme? The climax of the story was when they decided not to fight anymore, and forgive each other, and this illustrates the theme because the theme literally is forgiveness and moving on.

Give examples of each of the following literary terms in the story (use quotes):

Simile: "The roebuck, were running like driven things tonight".

Metaphor: "He was game". Game was used metaphoricaly, as in prey for the hunter, and was used to descirbe Georg as he was being pursued by Ulrich. Personification: "The shrieking wind."

Symbol: Their situation is symbolic because when they become trapped they realize that there are more important things in life than fighting, which symbolizes forgiveness, and then being trapped symbolizes them needed to work things out and end the feud.

Foreshadowing (give both elements): When they hear noises, it is foreshadowing that either their men or other people are getting close to them to help them. What ended up happening, though, was that the sounds they heard getting closer to them were not their men but wolves.

Irony: An example of situational irony is that the two men finally make a truce and end the decades long feud, just to be presumably killed by the wolves. This is also ironic, because after they are killed no one would know that they had reconciled and would continue the feud.

Imagery: "Each had a rifle in his hand, each hate in his heart and murder on his uppermost mind".

Describe the relationships between the class theme and the story. The class theme is power, and this takes on a more literal meaning in the story. The original feud between the two families was about land ownership. Both families thought they were the rightful owners of the forest, and both wanted it. They were both fighting for control, ownership, and power. Who ever had more land would be more powerful in society and more wealthy. However, it also took a tremendous amount of power mentally for the two men to overcome all of that and put it behind them, since they had been fighting since before they were born.

1. What is Ulrich hunting for?

At the beginning of the story he is hunting for Georg, because he wants to kill him.

2. How did Ulrich come to own the property in question?

Ulrich's family came to own the property when they won it from the other family, who had owned it illegally, many years before the setting of the story.

3. Why do Ulrich and Georg hate each other? How did it all start?

They hate each other because of a feud between the two families that started many years previous, when Ulrich's family won the property from Georg's family in a lawsuit. Georg's family had owned it illegally, but both families had thought that it belonged to them.

4. Identify the foreshadowing in the second paragraph.

At the end of the second paragraph it said how there was a "disturbing element in the forest", which is foreshadowing that someone else is in the forest too, most likely Georg Znaeym. He was in fact in the forest, looking for Ulrich.

5. Why did they not try to shoot each other the moment they saw each other?

They did not try to shoot each other the moment they saw each other because they had been "brought up under the code of a restraining civilization and cannot easily nerve himself to shoot down his neighbour in cold blood and without a word spoken...".

6. What saves Ulrich’s feet from being crushed?

His feet were not crushed because he was wearing heavy shooting boots.

7. What lies do they tell each other after realizing they are both trapped under the tree?

After they are both trapped under the tree, they both insist that their men will be there within minutes to rescue him and kill the other, when in fact their men were no where near and it could be a long time before they reached them.

8. Why does Ulrich change his mind about killing Georg?

Ulrich changes his mind about killing Georg because he feels sorry for him because they are both trapped and in pain, and doesn't feel the anger towards the other man he once did. He also realizes that there are better and more important things in life than fighting.

9. What significance is there in the title of this story? What are some possible meanings of the title?

The title, Interlopers, means trespassers, and this is significant because the whole feud between the two was about trespassing onto the other's land and stealing his game. Some other possible meanings of the title are that when one of them owns the land, the other person isn't allowed on in and doesn't belong anywhere near it.

10. In the end of the story why do each of the men hope that their men will come first to rescue him?

Each of the men hoped that their men would arrive first because they wanted to show the other that they were now friends instead of enemies, by having their men rescue the other man from under the tree and take them both back to civilization.

11. Describe the irony in this story.

It is ironic how the two men who have hated each other since before they were born, and then when they finally make a truce and forgive each other, they are killed (presumably) by a pack of wolves.

12. What metaphor can you find in relation to the tree pinning down the two characters?

The tree was a mediator; it forced the two men to work out their problems and end the feud.

13. Is the ending of this story effective? Why or why not?=====

No, I don't think the end of the story was very effective, because it never really said what happened to them. There were many possible outcomes, and I don't think that saying wolves were near to attacking them was effective enough. It doesn't say what happened after that, and although that is a good method into forcing the reader to make a conclusion about what happened in the story, I don't really think it was the right way to end the story.

Completion 5/5 Effort 4/5 Content 4/5

total 13/15

Questions Completion Mark5 /5

total 18/20